Crews battling paper mill fire in SW corner of Michigan’s UP

By The Associated Press

Upper Peninsula of Michigan

MENOMINEE, Mich. (AP) — Crews from several fire departments were battling a large fire Friday at a paper mill in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that began hours earlier in a warehouse, authorities said.

A spokesman for Resolute Forest Products said the fire, which was producing a dense cloud of smoke in Menominee, Michigan, began about 11 p.m. CDT Thursday in a warehouse that contained pulp and waste paper, WBAY-TV reported.

No injuries were reported in the fire along Michigan’s border with Wisconsin. But the blaze was so large crews from five fire departments were called to the scene, the Stephenson Fire Department said in a Facebook post.

The fire began a warehouse that Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products rents from KK Integrated Logistics on the site of Resolute’s Menominee recycled pulp mill along the Menominee River, said David Marshall, a company spokesman.

“Local fire departments have been on-site all night, and the fire is under control, although smoke is still billowing due to smoldering in the warehouse,” he said.

The paper mill makes paper pulp and employs nearly a hundred people, according to the company’s website. Resolute Forest Products has 40 facilities across the U.S. and Canada and is a leading producer of lumber, newsprint and other wood products.

Menominee is located in the southwest corner of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northwest of Green Bay, Wisconsin.